Mann works at Pennsylvania State University, where he directs the
Penn State Earth System Science Center.

Being at the forefront of your field's public persona isn't all
glory, though, especially when it is as controversial as climate
change.

Mann just published a a blog post for the
magazine "The Scientist" about his decades-long
persecution at the hands of climate deniers.

Here are some interesting excerpts of what he said.

On attacks on him personally:

Politicians have demanded I be fired from my job because of my
work demonstrating the reality and threat of human-caused climate
change... and was the target of what TheWashington
Post referred to as a “witch hunt” by Virginia’s
reactionary Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

I have even received a number of anonymous death
threats.

On the oil companies:

This cynicism is part of a destructive public-relations campaign
being waged by fossil fuel companies, front groups, and
individuals aligned with them in an effort to discredit the
science linking the burning of fossil fuels with potentially
dangerous climate change.

Investigations into his work:

In 2003, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) denounced my work on the
Senate floor and called me to testify to his committee under
hostile questioning. Two years later, House Representative Joe
Barton (R-TX) attempted to subpoena all of my emails and research
documents from my entire career, and the correspondence and files
of both my senior coauthors, presumably looking for some way to
both intimidate and discredit me. Inhofe and Barton are
two of the largest recipients of fossil fuel money in the
U.S. Congress.

On the silver lining:

I’ve become an accidental public figure in the debate over
human-caused climate change. Reluctant at first, I have come to
embrace this role, choosing to use my position in the public eye
to inform the discourse surrounding the issue of climate change.